Merrie Dawn

by Chris

  "That's not fair!"

  A slow grin crept across Allyn's face.

  "And it's not funny. I thought you were serious," Elias said.

  "You're right, though," Allyn said. "She might respond better to you, particularly if she recognises your soul. Go. I'll keep the faspane away and set wards at Dobbin's cabin. I should have enough sense of the girls' auras to allow them through. How are you going to convince her to come with you? Caroline believes we're faspane. Her people are unaware of our existence."

  Elias grinned as an idea came to him. "If she refuses I'll make her more scared of the forest than she is of me."

  His teacher raised an eyebrow. "I suspect she'll surprise you. She's determined to follow her own ignorance."

  The thought of a little fun lifted his spirits. "I doubt she's that sure of herself. See you soon."

  Allyn touched his forelock as Elias shouldered his bow and ran, following Caroline's tracks to the clearing. He chased off a lone wolf feeding on the carcass of a horse. It gave a few half-hearted snarls before running northward, leaving the feast. Within the moonlit trees he found the bodies of two faspane, both dead by their own hand. Allyn's work, no doubt. Surprisingly, there was a mound of dirt in the middle of the clearing, freshly piled. It had to be a grave.

  Elias examined the area more thoroughly, finding the girls' tracks leading in the same direction the wolf had taken. So much for scaring them silly. The wolves had probably done it for him. He hoped they knew how to climb trees. Concerned, he followed the tracks and quickly picked up those of nearly four dozen wolves, all heading in the same direction. A growing sense of unease gripped him. There were far too many wolves for a single pack.

  He opened his senses and felt something unnatural stirring in the air, yet it passed over him as if he didn't exist. He dug deeper, immersing his mind in the problem, and discovered lines of force more complicated than anything he could produce. It seemed to be a temporary effect bound to a single creature, stirring restlessly as if it had a life of its own. It carried the signature of a wolf as it spilled its malignant array of threads through the trees, ready to ensnare.

  Impressed, Elias widened his senses. The spell was deliberate, powerful, and huge, stretching from mountain peak to mountain peak. "Some sort of a wolf call?" he whispered. He followed the lines of force to their origin a mile away, where he encountered the twisted pattern of a mind's aura, warped from human to animal. "A werewolf?" he said in disbelief.

  He glanced up. Full moon. "By all that's holy…" The Gods truly were conspiring against the princess.

  Chapter 7

  Caroline ran as hard as she could, holding Kirsty's hand as they struggled on the uneven slope. Kirsty stumbled and nearly fell. Caroline barely kept her feet trying to hold Kirsty upright.

  "Another wolf! Hurry!" Caroline hissed as she dragged Kirsty into a run again, her breath frosting in the air and her icy wet skirts hampering her stride. The full moon illuminated patches of ground through the spring canopy, but not enough to see anything but moss-covered trees. They desperately needed to find somewhere safe to hide.

  A wolf cut across their path and both girls cried out and stopped. Caroline pulled at Kirsty's hand. "This way. Hurry. Hurry!" Almost twice Kirsty's weight, she had no trouble dragging her friend into motion again, snapping a dead branch from her path before plunging through a tree-fern's fronds.

  "Wolf ahead!" Kirsty cried.

  Caroline turned across the slope again, gripping Kirsty's hand as much to keep upright as to ensure they stayed together. Caroline had a feeling the wolves turned to keep pace with them. A quick glance found movement to either side.

  "The wolves are herding us like sheep," she said, almost breathless. She couldn't think of a way to escape them.

  Caroline forced herself to keep running, stumbling over every uneven patch of ground, deadfall and rock. The wolves turned them away from trees they could climb and rock faces they might be able to use as shelter.

  Caroline stopped. She doubled over and wheezed. Her side ached, forcing her to keep a hand on it. "They're wearing us out." Wolves howled close by, showing themselves briefly and disappearing back into the moon shadows.

  Caroline heard something and spun, her right foot slipping. She fell, her hand pulling from Kirsty's. "Help!" Caroline screamed as she tumbled, breaking saplings and ripping her skirts as she rolled down the slope to stop in a gully beside a thick tree trunk and a trickling stream of water. Her knuckles bled. She pushed herself to her knees, desperately looking for Kirsty. "Kirsty?"

  "My Lady!" Kirsty screamed. "Watch out!"

  With a quiet snarl, a dark wolf crashed into Caroline, the impact throwing her sideways and exploding the breath from her mouth as she hit the ground. She raised her arms over her face, expecting pain, but the wolf only kicked once, and then lay still. Caroline opened one eye. The beast lay across her thighs and hip, a three-foot arrow buried in the base of its neck. Dark blood stained its fur. Shaking, Caroline found she didn't have the strength to push it off.

  A huge izzat with ice-blue eyes stopped beside her, gripping a longbow. A shock of recognition passed through Caroline, almost as if she knew him.

  She cringed as he hauled the limp wolf off her with his free hand.

  "So you wouldn't go with Allyn, huh? Lucky I came."

  "Your eyes..." she whispered. He didn't have emerald or jade eyes like any other faspane, but pale blue like a shivra or human. He was big enough to be half shivra. He dropped the wolf beside her. Caroline leaned away from both him and the wolf, the warmth of the animal's blood soaking through her dress.

  The huge izzat ripped the arrow free with a sickening sound. "My name's Elias," he said as he rubbed the arrow's head on the animal's fur. "You're coming with me." He returned the arrow to the quiver at his hip and reached for her.

  "Please!" Caroline said, but he hauled her to her feet like she was a child. By the Higher Realm he was big, as big as any clansman. Caroline crossed her forearms in a gesture to ward off evil, but that only made him grin.

  Wolves howled, very close. Panicking, she struggled in his grip and tried to push him away. Kirsty stopped against a tree a few paces away, hands to her mouth.

  Elias let her go. She stumbled and almost fell. "There's a werewolf controlling that pack. The wolves are herding you toward it. You need to come with me."

  "But-"

  "Do you want to die?" He reached for her hand as a wolf leapt. Elias side-stepped and slammed his bow into the wolf's neck, crushing its windpipe. The wolf flipped backwards and dropped at his feet as another hit his back and knocked him sprawling to the ground. Caroline backed away as he slipped his dagger from his belt, but the animal kept its distance.

  Elias spun and slashed as another wolf came at him, slicing its neck open. He twisted and stabbed the next wolf in the chest as it sprang. It still crashed into him, one final snap of its jaws catching his arm. He grunted, jabbed his thumb into the wolf's soft cheek and forced its mouth open. He pulled his knife free and shoved the dying animal aside before picking up his bow. The string was broken.

  Caroline grabbed Kirsty's hand and dragged her into a run. Saviour or otherwise, he was still an izzat.

  Behind them a high-pitched yelp cut off short. The sound spurred her on. She caught a glimpse of movement in the moon shadows to their left. "Wolf," Caroline said. "Only one." Yet one was enough. It was too much for the younger girl. Kirsty stopped running and began to cry. "Not now, Kirsty. Come on!"

  Another wolf casually loped toward them, bigger than any other wolf she'd seen. "It's got red eyes," Kirsty whispered, horror in her voice. "It's the werewolf."

  Caroline stared in shock at the creature's unnatural red eyes, feeling strange to be so calm, but better death than capture by an izzat. The wolf tensed to spring. "Go!" Caroline yelled and shoved Kirsty aside, ensuring her friend had a chance as the beast hit Caroline full on.

  The impact smashed her off her fee
t, the werewolf tearing at her left arm before she hit the ground. They tumbled down the wet gully, rolling uncontrollably over each other and dislodging mud, rocks and debris before thudding into a rock banked with deadwood. Caroline struggled for breath as fresh blood warmed her injured shoulder. Coughing, she looked around, but saw nothing. The huge werewolf was gone.

  She pushed onto her knees and gripped a thick branch, certain it hadn't left her for good. Intelligent red eyes appeared in the moonlight as the creature moved into view, circling a dozen yards away and growling softly. Playing with her. Caroline's heart pounded as she stood on a painful ankle and hefted the branch, her bleeding arm close to her side. She took a step toward it. "Get away from me!"

  As if commanded, the beast turned and bounded back up the hill.

  She didn't realise its purpose for a moment. Oh no. "Kirsty! Run!" She limped after it, but the massive wolf turned and leapt. Caroline's fear and instinct came together and she swung her branch, striking as the werewolf hit her. She tumbled back, losing her grip on the wood as her head glanced against something.

  Barely conscious, she could do nothing as werewolf stood over her, moonlight shining silver on its damp fur. It looked insubstantial, like a ghost or a dream, until hot saliva drooled on her face. Too hurt to feel panic, she could barely focus on its face.

  It lunged. Teeth punched through her neck. She screamed in pain, then in agony as it tore. Warm blood sprayed. Hers. She tried to swallow, but her mouth fell open as her head lolled.

  The last sensation she felt was its weight on her chest, the werewolf's warmth almost comforting.

  Divine Prey is available on Amazon.

  Copyright © 2018 by Chris Andrews

  All Rights Reserved

  No Reproduction without Permission

  Any Job in Haze, and the chapters of Divine Prey are works of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are a product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to people living or dead, events or locations are entirely coincidental.

  Cover Design by Chris Andrews

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